Local lore has it that the church in Cloonderreen was established by the Knights Templars in 1296. The Knights Templars was an order founded, in 1118, to serve pilgrims going to the Holy Land. The order was suppressed in 1312. There is no mention of a church here in the 1302 taxation list. The local lore comes from "A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland" written by Lewis in 1837. However historical records show that the Knight Templars never came this far south in Ireland. They had foundations in Waterford, Tipperary and Limerick
It may well have been an order church maybe linked with the Franciscans who founded Timoleague Abbey. The friars were dispersed when the Abbey was suppressed, in 1542, and moved to Clogagh and possibly even this far east.
There was a graveyard around the church. This is marked in the 1842 Ordinance Survey map but there is no sign of it on the ground.
View of the remains of the western gable end of Cloundereen Church
View of the interior of the ruin from the east
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